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Radboud University exceeds 20,000 students for the first time

First-year students at orientation in August. Photo: Marjolein van Diejen

Radboud University is bigger than ever: the university now has nearly 21,000 students. The university announced today that all the faculties are growing, with the exception of the Faculty of Arts.

The ageing population in the south and east of the country and the elimination of the basic study grant could be seen as a threat for Radboud University. However, there is no indication of that in the growth figures: the university has grown more in this academic year than it has in years past. As of September, 20,967 students have registered. That is 5.4 percent more than last year.

This is primarily due to a large influx of Bachelor’s students. This group has grown by 7.9 percent. The university also has 1.1 percent more Master’s students than last year. Another growth factor of note is that the number of pre-Master’s students has doubled (from 409 to 858).

Explosive growth All the faculties are growing, with the exception of the Faculty of Arts (-1.1 percent). The Nijmegen School of Management has seen explosive growth: no less than 499 more students are registered in comparison to last year resulting in growth of 13.8 percent. The Faculties of Law (7.9 percent), Science (7.6 percent), and Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies (6.2 percent) are following suit.

According to Ward Kelder, head of education at the Nijmegen School of Management, the growth of his faculty can primarily be explained due to the growth in popularity of the pre-Master’s programmes. Furthermore, the numerus fixus for Business Administration has been removed. This has resulted in particularly strong growth for the English-language variant of that degree programme.

First-year students Radboud University has welcomed 5,282 first-year students this year, a record number (15.5 percent growth). Just as with the total number of registered students, the top performer here is the Nijmegen School of Management. This year, there will be 347 more first-year students than last year, which amounts to a growth of 37.6 percent.